Medium Quality Valves

Pick your valve tier by how much the car drives. Medium valves are what a lot of groups slot once the Level 2 workbench is down and the car has turned into the daily shuttle between base and the recycler. The three tiers, as the rows list them:

Read the condition column against the cost and something odd shows up: per fragment, low valves carry the most condition. So you do not upgrade to save metal. You upgrade because better parts are said to make the engine pull harder, and because a part that lasts longer means fewer stops at the lift. Each tier costs the same 15 scrap to research, so learning this one the day the bench goes down is cheap.

The game text is identical across the set: poppet valves that control the intake and exhaust flow. Only the tier changes, and on an engine module the carburetor, crankshaft, pistons and spark plugs count just as much.